The Role of Income in System Justification.

Background: System justification theory asserts that people's motivation to defend, justify, and maintain the status quo depends on their socio-economic status. At the same time practically nothing is known about the mediators for the relationship between a person's income and his adherence to system justification. Objective: The aim of this study was to clarify the role of income in motivating an individual to justify the system, taking into account as potential mediators of this relationship his sense of control over life and level of life satisfaction. Design: In an online study (N = 410), a double sequential mediation model was tested, with an individual's income as an independent variable, his/her system justification as a dependent variable, and his/her perceived control over life and level of life satisfaction as mediators. The impact of education was controlled by inserting it into the model as a covariate. Results: The results demonstrated that people with low incomes justify the system more than people with high incomes do. At the same time, there was a positive indirect effect of income on system justification, indicating that, compared to people with low incomes, those with high incomes had a more pronounced sense of control over their lives, which contributed to an increase in their level of life satisfaction, and was positively associated with justification of the status quo. Conclusion: The results are discussed in terms of differences in the palliative function of system justification for individuals of different socio-economic status.

Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables.

The Role of Valence and Uniqueness of Emotions in the Context of Infrahumanization Theory.

Background: Infrahumanization is a result of group comparison when the ingroup is considered as fully human in comparison to an outgroup that is viewed as lacking humanness and similar to animals. Infrahumanization theory proposed that the attribution of emotions to ingroups and out-groups is based on their uniqueness, regardless of the valence of these emotions. Since the valence of information plays an important role in its processing and perception, it was decided to clarify the role of uniqueness and valence. Objective: This article aims to explore the role of valence and uniqueness in the perception of emotions within the framework of the infrahumanization theory. Design: Three studies were conducted. A preliminary study selected emotions with extreme values for uniqueness and valence to create a list for measuring infrahumanization for the Russian socio-cultural context. In Study 1, we tested three alternative models of perception of emotions' uniqueness and valence. In Study 2, we replicate the results from Study 1 and check the robustness of the models obtained. Results: In a preliminary study (N = 146), twelve emotions with different levels of uniqueness and valence were selected for the Russian sociocultural context. CFA was used for testing the models in Studies 1 and 2. The results of Study 1 (N = 243) demonstrated the role of valence and uniqueness in the perception of emotions. Study 2 (N = 482) confirmed the results obtained in Study 1. Conclusion: For the first time, the infrahumanization measure was adapted to the Russian socio-cultural context. Infrahumanization research should control valence for a qualitative discussion of the results.

Factors in workers' dehumanization: Multiple stigmatization, social status, and workers' sex.

The aim of this study is to examine how different factors (multiple stigmatization, perceived social status, and workers' sex) as well as their interactions are associated with the dehumanization of workers. In the preliminary study (N = 991), we selected 16 occupations with different types of stigmatization and perceived status relevant to the Russian socio-cultural context. In two experimental studies (N1 = 1060, N2 = 1081), we demonstrated that multiple stigmatization increases metaphor-based and attribute-based animalistic but not mechanistic dehumanization: low-status workers were more animalistically dehumanized than high-status workers; the high status decreased the metaphor-based animalistic dehumanization of occupations with multiple stigmatization, and the attribute-based animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization of workers regardless of their stigmatization; and male workers were more mechanistically dehumanized than female ones but there were no differences in animalistic dehumanization. The results obtained are discussed in the context of understanding the specificity of workers' dehumanization and the possible consequences of this dehumanization.

Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning.

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution-individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic.

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic.

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.

When sexism is not a problem: The role of perceived intelligence in willingness to interact with someone who is sexist.

Two studies examined factors that would influence people's preferences for interaction with a perpetrator of sexism. In Study 1 (n = 348), participants preferred to interact (being friends or developing a relationship) with an intelligent person regardless of whether or not that person was sexist. Study 2 (n = 614) replicated this finding and confirmed that where a perpetrator had a high level of intelligence, people were more willing to interact with them, regardless of the perpetrator's sex and the perceived commission or non-commission of sexist behavior. Moreover, Study 2 provides evidence that participants' hostile sexism beliefs are a significant covariate of a willingness to interact with unintelligent women. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the understanding of person perception.

How Do Russians Perceive and Justify the Status Quo: Insights From Adapting the System Justification Scales.

This paper aims to adapt the system justification scales (general, political, economic, and gender) for the Russian socio-cultural context and to carry out their psychometric analysis. In Study 1 (N = 450), the original items from four system justification scales on a Russian sample were tested. The results suggested that none of the original scales worked properly in Russia and all of them demonstrated weak fit indices. In Study 2 (N = 553), culturally specific grounds for system justification in the Russian context were highlighted and tested. The results of this study confirmed that all the adapted scales demonstrated a good fit to the data. In Study 3 (N = 1,011), the invariance of system justification scales and the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales was tested. The results confirmed that the general, political, and economic system justification scales demonstrated full invariance, while the gender system justification scale showed partial invariance for multigroup comparison. All the scales convergent and discriminant validity, which leads to consider them as an effective tool for measuring system justification in various types of social relationships in Russia. The role of socio-cultural characteristics in justifying the status quo is discussed.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1.

Are people more prejudiced towards groups that are perceived as coherent? A meta-analysis of the relationship between out-group entitativity and prejudice.

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between out-group entitativity and prejudice. A quantitative analysis of 85 effect sizes from 33 independent samples showed a significant positive relationship between entitativity and prejudice (Fisher's z = .414, 95% CI [0.272, 0.557], p < .0001). Three possible moderators of the relationship between entitativity and prejudice were tested: conceptualization of the entitativity (essence-based entitativity scale, agency-based entitativity scale, common entitativity scale), the target of the prejudice, and the measures of prejudice (attitudes, emotions, behaviour towards out-group). Results demonstrated that out-group entitativity correlated with prejudice only when entitativity was conceptualized as an essence-based or common-based scale, and prejudice was measured as the attitude to the out-group. The target of prejudice does not moderate the relationship between entitativity and prejudice.

A hierarchical (multicomponent) model of in-group identification: examining in Russian samples.

The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of Leach et al.'s (2008) model of in-group identification in two studies using Russian samples (overall N = 621). In Study 1, a series of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the hierarchical model of in-group identification, which included two second-order factors, self-definition (individual self-stereotyping, and in-group homogeneity) and self-investment (satisfaction, solidarity, and centrality), fitted the data well for all four group identities (ethnic, religious, university, and gender) (CFI > .93, TLI > .92, RMSEA < .06, SRMR < .06) and demonstrated a better fit, compared to the alternative models. In Study 2, the construct validity and reliability of the Russian version of the in-group identification measure was examined. Results show that these measures have adequate psychometric properties. In short, our results show that Leach et al.'s model is reproduced in Russian culture. The Russian version of this measure can be recommended for use in future in-group research in Russian-speaking samples.